Scenes For A Revolution (1991) Sunday Pop Corn at Ύλη[matter]HYLE

I missed this from a week ago, but it is fantastic to hear of a screening of Karlin’s Scenes for a Revolution (1991) at Ύλη[matter]HYLE in Athens last Sunday. It was screened in a new series of artist film programmed by Katerina Nikou, currently curatorial assistant of the public programs of documenta 14 based in Athens and artist Theo Prodomidis, currently based in Paris, in collaboration with Ύλη[matter]HYLE.

In an attempt to avoid the stereotypes of global financial and social crisis the film program aims to go far beyond status quo and address issues of contemporaneity as well as to examine the following basic parameters: the change of our perception of time, the redefinition of public space, the reconciliation of geopolitical boundaries and the position of individuals in a precarious society. We challenge the public to imagine new spatial conditions defined by social relationships and to question once more this era of social apathy and absence or suppression of passion, emotion and excitement. We aim to investigate tools that are constantly undermined: education, collective attempts of resistance, production of spiritual knowledge and raise of social consciousness.

The film series at Ύλη[matter]HYLE is a spontaneous reaction to the needs of the contemporary society. You are kindly invited to follow us in this attempt of gain and share knowledge.

Scenes For A Revolution (1991)

SUNDAY NOV 27th, 7:00 pm

Director – MARC KARLIN*

Courtesy: Marc Karlin Archive

Scenes For A Revolution (1991)

Subtitles: English

Duration: 1 hour 44 minutes

Marc Karlin returns to Nicaragua after five years to examine the history of the Sandinista government and the prospects for democracy following their defeat in the general election of 1990. A film about aftermaths and reckonings. Revisiting material for his earlier four-part series (1985), Karlin returns to Nicaragua to examine the history of the Sandinista government, consider its achievements, and assess the prospects for democracy following its defeat in the general election of 1990.

Marc Karlin (1943-1999) is widely regarded as Britain’s most important but least known director of the last half century. His far-reaching essay films deal with working-class and feminist politics, international leftism, historical amnesia and the struggle for collective memory, about the difficulty but also the necessity of political idealism in a darkening world.

Chris Marker hailed him as a key filmmaker, and his work has inspired or been saluted by moving-image artists and historians such as Sally Potter, Sheila Rowbotham, John Akomfrah, Luke Fowler and The Otolith Group. Yet, in large part because his passionate, ideas-rich, formally adventurous films were made for television, until recently they were lost to history.